Blizzard is set to sell off about 2000 servers from their popular MMO World of Warcraft. Each server blade will be in a custom windowed case and ship with a commemorative plaque signed by the World of Warcraft Team. All proceeds from the sale of these server blades will go to St. Jude Children's Hospital. These auctions will take place over the next several weeks on eBay with the first starting on October 17th.

Quote:

Blizzard Entertainment is offering a series of special charity auctions featuring server hardware originally used during World of Warcraft’s early days. We’ve since upgraded the game’s infrastructure with the latest technology to offer an even better player experience, but these “honorably discharged” server blades are now unique collectors’ pieces.

The net proceeds from the auction will go to benefit
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

All MMO's suffer from player apathy at some point, you can only play the same game over and over again before it gets tiring. My time came two years ago and I haven't looked back since. I even tried the free trial recently when they changed the terms, and it only took me a few minutes to realize I still had no interest.

But for this, this sounds more like they are upgrading and finding an extremely good way of getting rid of the old servers, probably to try and win people back after the debacle that is Diablo III...

I am going to hope that the comment about subscriber base and selling servers to stay profitable is a joke. As mentioned in what you actually quoted, these blades are the original hardware that WoW launched on. Since then they have replaced this hardware with new and improved versions and now they have a stack of unique items which will have great sentimental value to a large number of people.

As best I know WoW hasn't actually shut down and/or merged any servers. You could log into WoW right now and create a character on all of the servers that were there launch day. Or on any of the dozens of servers that have been added over the years.

The idea of me owning the piece of hardware that I made my first WoW character on would be neat .. though the idea of paying "real" money for it, is somewhat laughable.

I am going to hope that the comment about subscriber base and selling servers to stay profitable is a joke. As mentioned in what you actually quoted, these blades are the original hardware that WoW launched on. Since then they have replaced this hardware with new and improved versions and now they have a stack of unique items which will have great sentimental value to a large number of people.

As best I know WoW hasn't actually shut down and/or merged any servers. You could log into WoW right now and create a character on all of the servers that were there launch day. Or on any of the dozens of servers that have been added over the years.

The idea of me owning the piece of hardware that I made my first WoW character on would be neat .. though the idea of paying "real" money for it, is somewhat laughable.

( Insert snide video game "journalism" comment here

I was just about to say the very same thing; this is old hardware that was likely replaced years ago. They've never shut down or merged any servers; I still have characters on their earliest ones.

While their user base may have seen some "settling", Blizzard doesn't have to do anything other than keep their servers active to remain profitable at this point.

Even at my shadiest, my "journalism" was never as yellow as this when I was a Red.

Blizz thinks that server blades are worth as much as movie stills or lithographs? Charity worthy? ROFL This would be the same ballpark stunt as Donald Trump selling his toupee to raise campaign funds.

I'm sure a handful of the millions of active WoW players will find these to be valuable. The blades are, after all, physical pieces of the biggest game of all time; as a former WoW addict(who is partially playing it again, dammit...), I would find it relatively nifty to have one of these.

They'll likely go for far to much, so I'm not even toying with the idea.

I'm sure a handful of the millions of active WoW players will find these to be valuable. The blades are, after all, physical pieces of the biggest game of all time; as a former WoW addict(who is partially playing it again, dammit...), I would find it relatively nifty to have one of these.

They'll likely go for far to much, so I'm not even toying with the idea.

I love the message it sends about what they think about their fans lol.

Activision/Blizz HQ:
"They bought owl baby pets and flying my little ponycats, why not see if they'll buy some of our old junk hardware?"....*awkward silence*.... "Get that man a promotion."

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by AspectVoid

I had no idea he was posting awesome stuff that would get the ads cancelled.

I love the message it sends about what they think about their fans lol.

Activision/Blizz HQ:
"They bought owl baby pets and flying my little ponycats, why not see if they'll buy some of our old junk hardware?"....*awkward silence*.... "Get that man a promotion."

Except 100% of the profits from these server blades are going to a children's hospital. St. Judes requires 1 million dollars a day to operate so every bit helps, regardless of the junk they sell for their own profit.

Except 100% of the profits from these server blades are going to a children's hospital. St. Judes requires 1 million dollars a day to operate so every bit helps, regardless of the junk they sell for their own profit.

True, in the event of charity then it's ok. It's like this typical Activision dick move, then Blizz stepped in and said "woah wait a sec, we've got fans to think about. Lets do this for charity."

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by AspectVoid

I had no idea he was posting awesome stuff that would get the ads cancelled.

I am going to hope that the comment about subscriber base and selling servers to stay profitable is a joke. As mentioned in what you actually quoted, these blades are the original hardware that WoW launched on. Since then they have replaced this hardware with new and improved versions and now they have a stack of unique items which will have great sentimental value to a large number of people.

As best I know WoW hasn't actually shut down and/or merged any servers. You could log into WoW right now and create a character on all of the servers that were there launch day. Or on any of the dozens of servers that have been added over the years.

The idea of me owning the piece of hardware that I made my first WoW character on would be neat .. though the idea of paying "real" money for it, is somewhat laughable.

( Insert snide video game "journalism" comment here

Yes, it was obviously a joke.

__________________
Beer: The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.

You just said in the news post that all proceeds are going to charity, so how can this just be them trying to stay in the black? Is what you said supposed to be joke? I don't get it.

Yes it was a joke. However, now that I think about it more. Maybe they require less servers since they have less users. Selling servers that are no longer required could reduce operating costs associated with power usage and maintenance, thus increasing profits. So, while I doubt that is the case, selling these servers could have other benefits besides donating to charity.

__________________
Beer: The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.

Yes it was a joke. However, now that I think about it more. Maybe they require less servers since they have less users. Selling servers that are no longer required could reduce operating costs associated with power usage and maintenance, thus increasing profits. So, while I doubt that is the case, selling these servers could have other benefits besides donating to charity.

It's not the case at all, because none of their servers have been shut down. I have characters on some of the oldest servers in the game, ones that have been around since the game originally launched. They're all still available, up and running.

They've never merged any servers. They've never shut any servers down. They're auctioning off old hardware from server upgrades.